


this time we'll keep

by chocolatechipsformorale



Series: invincible like i've never been [1]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Found Family, Gen, Home, House Hunting, Post-Episode: e067-069 Story and Song Parts 1-3, Spell Creation, Sticking Together, artificing, breaking the rules of d&d 5e, not being alone, taking care of each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-25 17:41:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19750612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chocolatechipsformorale/pseuds/chocolatechipsformorale
Summary: Angus has no practical experience with artificing. Conversely, Taako, Lup, and Barry nearly triggered the end times with their most notable artifacts.Angus has no idea what’s going to happen to these keys.





	this time we'll keep

It takes skill to fall asleep in the middle of a piggyback ride but Angus McDonald is a very talented boy, so he makes it work. He wakes up on the Starblaster, which he recognizes from the Voidfish’s song. It reminds him of a galley ship if galleys were made only of silver plating and crimson cloth. The room Angus is in, a slightly dusty den that he thinks is on one of the ship’s lower levels, reminds him of the common room of Taako, Magnus, and Merle’s dorm. It’s messy but not dirty, a controlled sort of chaos. Books pile on end tables and a chess set has been sloppily dumped into a box that sits on the floor next to a shelf. There are puzzles and photographs, pencils and paper, on a shelf that needs a guardrail on the front so none of the contents go flying as the ship moves. There are two large blankets, one quilt haphazardly tossed over the arm of an armchair and one plush knitted throw that has been tossed over Angus himself. He sits up to see that he is on one of two couches, with two other armchairs also in the room filling up some of the remaining space.  
Angus is only awake long enough to sit up, look around, and rub his eyes before Lup materializes in the room. Angus jumps, a hand flying to his chest.  
“Oh my goodness,” He says, “Miss Lup!”  
Lup laughs, pulling back the hood of her red robe. Angus expects to see exposed bone and rot, but instead, Lup is condensed fire in the vague shape of a person. The phantom flames around her flicker and swirl as she laughs.  
“Sorry Kid,” She says, “I just wanted to let you know we’re chilling out topside? Also, you’re not the only one who fell asleep, don’t feel bad. Merle clonked out in his room.”  
Angus does feel a little better about his accidental nap with this knowledge. He follows her up, up, up, watching his step on stairs that feel like little more than a ladder and running his fingers over hallways that have seen a hundred years.  
Above deck does not really look like there is a party in progress. There are no lights and no booming music that Angus has come to associate with any party Taako, Magnus and Merle have thrown. People are sitting on the floor in odd groupings, food shared between them. The sharp smell of nonmagical antiseptic hangs in the air, with dirty bandages tossed in one corner of the deck, but joy permeates the space.  
“Look who woke up!” Lup announces loudly.  
There’s a loud cheer as they step on deck. Angus ducks his head, flushing from the sudden attention, but people quickly return to their own conversations. Unsure of exactly where to go, Angus follows Lup to where she’s sitting.  
Taako and Barry are sitting with their backs pressed up against the side of the boat. Magnus is laying down, eyes closed, using Taako’s leg as a pillow. Lup floats to the space above Barry and Taako, casting an orange glow over both of them.  
“You planning on sitting, Pumpkin?” Taako asks, slightly drowsy. Angus has no idea what time it is but it feels late.  
“Yes,” He says because it feels like the right thing. He sits down cross-legged exactly where he was standing. “Is Magnus asleep?”  
Taako shrugs. “Yeah, probably.” It here where Angus expected Taako to try to save his image of a person who has no attachments to anybody, which is untrue, but still, by shoving Magnus off of his lap. He does no such thing.  
“You could poke him to check.”  
“That would be mean!” Angus says, “I couldn’t.”  
Lup takes a very loud breath, leans down, and firmly pokes Magnus in the face with a finger that was solid only for a moment.  
“What the fuck,” Magnus says.  
Taako bursts out laughing.

The Bureau of Balance is gone, for now. The Director, Lucretia, says that it will return stronger than ever, but the base is all but destroyed right now. Lucretia also says that when the Bureau has been rebuilt Angus still has a job there if he wants it.  
Angus doesn’t really know what he wants. There is a house in Neverwinter that does, technically, belong to him now. He could go there, continue his work with the militia, solidify his status as the World’s Best Detective. It’s been nearly a year that Angus has been on the moon. It’s been loud and chaotic and very, very comfortable. He enjoys the company of other people, even if it isn’t all active interaction. The being is soothing, he finds. Angus doesn’t like solitude.  
His next idea is to go off to school. Schools are busy and loud and he’d likely make lots and lots of friends there. The current boarding schools are passable at best, Angus learns more quickly than most students his age, but he could discuss an independent accelerated study. It sounds… fine.

In the week after they beat the Hunger, there is a lot of very serious talk about what people are going to do next. Magnus wants to reopen his woodworking business in Raven’s Roost. Taako isn’t sure exactly what he’s going to do yet, but he knows it’s happening in Goldcliffe and Lup and Barry are obviously staying with him. Merle’s going to Bottlenose Cove to start an adventuring school with his children. Davenport thinks he’s going to take a trip, where he isn’t yet sure. As soon as they repair the Moonbase, Lucretia will be staying there. In spite of all of these grand plans, nobody’s really happy with what’s happening. After one hundred years together, give or take a decade, being alone doesn’t feel right.   
“I have an idea,” Angus says. They’re sitting in that den again, the seven birds, Angus, Mavis and Mookie, and Kravitz, who has finally been able to get time off of work after releasing thousands of death criminals into Faerun. “It might be stupid.”  
“There are no stupid ideas,” Barry says kindly,  
“There are, but if this is one, we won’t toss you overboard.” Taako corrects, “Spit it out.”  
“The problem is that everyone would be living so far apart,” Angus says, “I believe the solution is just to make it so you all live close together.”  
“We’re not moving in together.” Merle says, “I’m done with the city.”  
“That’s not what I meant.” Angus says, “What I was thinking of was building a travel system based off of pocket dimensions. You’ve got some, you know how they work. If you cut down travel time enough, make it easy enough, it’ll be almost like you don’t live apart at all.”  
“Hm,” Taako says, “Well Agnes, that’s at least two-thirds a good idea.”  
“Really!”  
“Don’t get cocky. Pocket dimensions won’t work though. We’d all just end up in the same room, there wouldn’t be any transport happening.”  
Kravitz bumps into Taako’s side. “I have some knowledge about portals,” He says.  
“Oh dunk,” Taako says. He stands quickly, grabbing Kravitz’s hand. “Barry, where did all the paper go?”  
“Where it’s always been?” Barry says, pausing his _Dos and Don’ts of First Time Necromancy_ conversation with Mookie that will have no serious repercussions later, “Where are you going?”  
“The lab, duh, come with,” Taako says. “Lup! Come on.”  
Lup tips her head back and Angus just knows that if she could, she would be rolling her eyes hardcore.  
“Come on Kid,” She says as she drifts towards the door, “You’re in charge of making sure we don’t blow the lab up.”

Sitting on the counter in the middle of a lab most definitely breaks several safety rules but it’s the place where Angus can best see what’s happening with the paper Taako is frantically scribbling on.  
“If we were only creating one portal,” Kravitz explains aside to Angus, “We would use Gate, a conjuration spell. Because we’re trying to link multiple places, we’re going to need to modify it.”  
“You’re not a conjuration wizard, are you?” Angus asks.  
Kravitz’s nose wrinkles in disgust. “I would never. There’s not a whole lot of creativity in conjuration. You either take things places or send them away. I’d get bored.”  
Taako snorts, “You’re such a bard.”  
“Oh my gods,” Barry says, “Taako, please do math.”  
“You’re just as good at math, I don’t know why I have to do the math,” Taako mumbles under his breath before clearing his throat. “Anyways! We have a transmutationist, a necromancer, an evocation specialist, a bardic paladin, a cleric, an illusionist, and an abjurer. Somehow, with eight magic users on this boat, we don’t have a conjurer.”  
“I’m a magic user,” Angus says,  
“We have eight and a half magic users on this boat and no still no conjurers,” Taako allows. “You don’t have a specialty yet; you’re level baby.”  
“Didn’t you take a level in cleric too like, somewhere around year sixty?” Lup asks.  
“I only wanted to learn spare the dying, this isn’t important,” Taako says quickly, “Krav, what do you know about portals?”  
Kravitz knows a lot about portals in theory. Paladins often practice low-level conjuration so Kravitz has some skill, but not enough for modifying ninth level spells. He knows the movements that conjuration specialists use to summon portals and the materials that they use for spell components. What little Kravitz does know about portals in practice, he knows from his scythe. He summons it and explains how he assumes it has a modified version of the spell Gate embedded in it, reminds them how it slices through dimensions and notes that his scythe activates Gate telepathically instead of verbally. Learning about conjugation and portals is interesting but not necessarily practical. They don’t really know what to do.

“Okay,” Lup says, floating up against the ceiling, “Okay. Okay. So, we can all agree that it’s a door.”  
“A door would be great,” Taako says, laying on the floor directly underneath her.  
“Love doors.” Barry agrees, sitting on the lab bench Angus vacated several hours ago. He’d been laying around thinking for the first couple hours too, but Angus hadn’t made much headway. He does much better occupied.  
“Check?” Angus asks slowly, sitting cross-legged on the floor across from Kravitz, who is attempting to teach him to play poker, “I want to check, right?”  
“Do you want to bet more paperclips?” Kravitz asks,  
“No,” Angus says, glancing at his cards, “I’m good.”  
“Then you want to check,” Kravitz agrees, “I’ll check too. Here’s the river. With this, we both have a pair. Now you’re going to want to look at all the cards before we bet another round--”  
“Holy shit,” Taako says, sitting up suddenly. “I’ve figured it out.”  
Angus sets his hand down on the ground. “You’ve figured it out?”  
“Come on Taako,” Lup says, “Share with the class, I’m dying over here.”  
“We’ve been focusing on the door,” Taako says, “The door doesn’t really matter. What we need are keys.”

Angus has no practical experience with artificing. Conversely, Taako, Lup, and Barry nearly triggered the end times with their most notable artifacts. Angus has no idea what’s going to happen to these keys.  
Kravitz summons his scythe again. He balances it horizontally in both of his hands for a moment before setting it on the lab bench.  
“Can I touch it?” Barry asks excitedly.  
Kravitz considers. “I feel like telling you to be careful wouldn’t do anything so sure, go for it. If you goof it and die we’ll just have to handle the death crimes problem sooner.”  
“What if we don’t handle the death crimes problem at all?” Lup suggests.  
“No,” Kravitz says, “No, we definitely have to handle the death crimes problem at some point. Like, it’s very cool of you to not be on a murderous rampage but the whole lich thing—”  
“Cramping your style?”  
“Maybe just a little.” Kravitz says, “It’s the Raven Queen’s least favorite thing.”  
“Lame,” Barry says, gently running his fingers across the blade of the scythe. “Damn, I wish I had six months to take this apart. Angus, you ready to take some notes?”  
Angus grabs one of the pieces of paper off of the bench and pulls a pen out of his pocket.  
“Of course, Sir!”  
“All right, we’re going to need to start with a vessel.”

Late that night one dozen keys appear in a laboratory where the seven birds repaired dozens of arcane focuses and built the most powerful weapons in the planerverse. They are shaped from gold and charged with enough arcane energy that Angus is scared of what would happen if they were purposefully broken. The keys are supposed to mimic Kravitz’s scythe in a limited manner. They hold the spell Gate but will only take them home.  
Angus turns a key into the air. It opens up a rectangular door that is wide enough for several people to step through at once. He bounds forwards, followed closely behind by the rest of his team. The door soundlessly closes behind them and blinks out of existence, just like it was never there.  
The moment Angus’ foot touches down on the other side of the door he is no longer on the Starblaster. He’s on the moon, in the crushed remains of the dorm he’s lived in for the past year. He picks up the Caleb Cleveland novel he had been reading the night before Taako, Magnus, and Merle went into Wonderland. It’s moist and slightly crumpled but not completely trashed.  
Angus casts Prestidigitation to clean the book. The dirt wicks away from the cover and the pages straighten.  
“Okay,” He says, tucking the book under his arm, “Let’s go home.”

At first, Angus doesn’t understand that one of the keys belongs to him. He tries to hand it back to Taako to keep as a spare. He had thought that they would need several spares because Merle is a forgetful dwarf and soulbinding a key would be a lot of trouble.  
“We’ve already got one extra,” Taako says at dinner. Magnus and Lucretia cooked, and it smells familiar and new at the same time. There have been a number of things over the past week that have been familiar and new, an echo of the voidfish’s song. Angus tries not to think about it too much when he does the information overload gives him a migraine. “Why do we need two extras?”  
“How do you only have two extras?” Angus asks.  
“Seven,” Lup says, “Then Mavis and Mookie, so eight, nine. Kravitz gets the tenth. Eleventh for you.”  
“And twelve for when Merle bones it.” Taako says, “You don’t have to take the key, kid. We can keep it here.”  
“No!” Angus says, “No, I’m gonna keep it.”  
“Where are you going next Angus?” Magnus asks. “You planning on chilling until the B.O.B. starts back up?”  
“No,” Angus says. “I don’t really know. School maybe?”  
“Your grandpa?” Magnus asks.  
Angus shakes his head before shoving a large bite of food into his mouth. It’s good, a meat sauce over thick cut squash. He chews carefully, watching the people around him. Fitting everybody around the dining table is a tight squeeze and he doubts it would have worked if Lup were in her body. Even now Angus’ knee is pressed up close against Mavis’ and Barry is leaning up against the wall as he eats. Lup and Taako are staring at each other. Angus isn’t sure if they’re having a literal telepathic conversation or if they’re just very good at letting each other know what they want. Angus also can’t determine who wins their argument.  
“Alright Kid,” Taako finally says, “Tomorrow, we’re hopping over to Goldcliffe to look for a house. You can come with if you want.”

Angus is unsure who he thought “we” would be, but he had not expected it to be both twins, Barry, Kravitz, and Magnus. Davenport parks the Starblaster just outside of town and says that they’ll be waiting there for the remainder of the day.  
The cases that Angus has had in Goldcliffe previously had been short. He had nearly forgotten how glitzy Goldcliffe is. They meet their realtor in front of a café with a glass window, painted signs on the front touched up despite the fact that the world had nearly ended a week ago. She shakes their hands and pretends that she doesn’t know them from a jellyfish’s song.  
They look at several houses but ultimately the one the pick is red. Magnus could have painted any of the other houses red or Taako could have transmuted the bricks but there was something about walking up the street and seeing that crimson red house up against the yellow-brown cliffs that just felt like home. It has three stories and a large basement that will likely be turned into a laboratory by the end of the month. The first floor has living space, a kitchen, and a bath. The second floor has bedrooms and a bath. The third floor has more beds and another bath but will probably be used for things like library space, offices, and instrument storage.  
At first, Angus just follows people around. Magnus looks at every built in, making sure that they were constructed firmly and have been maintained properly. Lup and Barry go through the whole house plotting where imaginary furniture will go, which room will belong to who, which corner of the living room the piano will be in. Taako closely examines all the appliances in the kitchen even though he’s been assured they’re new, just to doublecheck before leading Kravitz upstairs by one hand. Angus can just barely hear him say _okay, so I’m not saying you’re moving in tomorrow but someday how would you feel about keeping the cello over here by the window?_ After making one quick tour of the house Angus waits by the door, unsure of what he’s supposed to be doing.  
“Hey, Ango?” Magnus says, coming down the stairs.  
“Hm?” Angus says, “You need something?”  
“I’m good,” Magnus says. “You find a room you liked yet?”  
“A room?” Angus asks,  
“You know, for sleeping in? Chilling? Knowing you probably also some nerd shit?” Magnus says, “You’re the smartest kid on the planet, I’d have thought you’d figured this out by now.”  
“A room? For me” Angus asks. Picking out a room is a simple concept, but Angus doesn’t really feel like he understands it. “This isn’t a joke, is it?”  
Magnus rolls his eyes before raising one hand to the side of his mouth. “Hey, Taako!” He yells.  
“What?”  
“Angus supposed to be picking out a room?”  
_“Does he want to sleep on the kitchen floor?”_

“Oh,” Angus says.  
“Come on,” Magnus says, gesturing for Angus to follow him up the stairs, “We’ve got four bedrooms on this floor. The two larger ones are about the same size, which is nice because I did not want to see how Taako and Lup worked that one out, they’re at opposite ends of the hall.” Magnus points to the two rooms. “Because I’m here and nobody else is, I’m saying Taako and associated parties will probably be on this side, Lup and Barry on the other. Do you think you’d want your room closer to Lup and Barry or to us? They’re also pretty similar but I think the one closer to Barry and Lup might already have a built-in.”  
“You guys,” Angus says.  
“Alright,” Magnus says, stepping into the room. “How do you feel about this?”  
The room is plain, a blank canvas. The same honey wood flooring that runs through the whole house covers the floor and the walls are painted a mild cream. There’s one window with no blinds and a closed closet door. It’s bigger than Angus’ room at the Bureau, smaller than his childhood room at his Grandfather’s.  
Angus feels very good about this room, feels good about company and closeness and a place to call home that he doesn’t have to keep running himself. He runs a careful hand over the painted wall before turning back to Magnus.  
“May I have a desk?” Angus asks because he thinks he would like a desk, a big solid one with several drawers where he can write papers and work on cases.  
“Sure bud,” Magnus says, “Whatever you want.”

Technically, Angus does go away to school. Lucas Miller’s School of Arcane Sciences is in Neverwinter. He turns a key into thin air and steps into his homeroom classroom, easily tucking his backpack underneath his seat.  
“Hey, Angus!” A tiefling with sunflower gold skin calls as they walk into the room. They push a fringe of dark hair out of their face as they sink heavily into their seat.  
Angus waves. “Good Morning, Greer!” He says, “Have you seen Div yet this morning?”  
“He’s on his way,” Greer says, “I saw him at breakfast half an hour ago and he _said_ he would be on time.”  
Angus looks at the clock. Class starts in two minutes.  
“Do you remember the last time Div was on time?” He asks.  
“Honestly? No, I can’t.” Greer says with a grin. “Do you remember who’s place we decided we were studying at tonight?”  
Angus smiles, something light settling down against his chest. “My house.” 

**Author's Note:**

> i've had ideas for post-canon balance universe for a good while now. this got longer than i thought it would so this hopefully a series of loosely connected oneshots now but i've never done that before so we'll see! my fingers and toes are crossed. you can find me at [@warptimeandspace](https://warptimeandspace.tumblr.com/) on tumblr and you're always welcome to prompt me!


End file.
